Revival
by MugOfAtmosphere
Summary: [ NaLu ] Natsu returns from the battle of Zeref, leaving the guild to wonder what happened and why Zeref's power still lurks on the maps. Opening up to Lucy for once, Natsu explains what happens and ends up sharing with the whole guild.
1. Return

*** Story has been reposted due to uploading/formatting error! Sorry for the inconvenience! ***

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" _Natsu..," the voice so familiar was quiet._

Fifteen minutes ago, Happy returned Natsu back to the guild. Shame, guilt, and fear was scrawled across the young man's face. Refusing to look a single guild member in the eyes, Natsu hustled past everyone to anyroom that provided privacy.

Unlucky for Natsu, Lucy had followed him, now attempting to gain his attention.

"Natsu..," her voice was as sweet as ever, but chocked-full of concern. A light pressure pressed into his lower back, slowly skimming over his clothes till Lucy was before him. Shutting his eyes, Natsu turned his head away, unable to look at her directly. Out of everyone in the guild, she was the one he could never face after what happened between Zeref and him.

"Look at me, Natsu. What happened out there?" her voice shook slightly. Her angry act wouldn't work. At least, not in this moment. Too many emotions filled everyone, including her.

After moments passed without him saying a word or looking at her, Lucy placed both hands on his face, forcibly turning it to her.

"You left again, without saying a word only for us to discover you went to fight Zeref alone. We put our trust in you that you knew what you were doing. Only then..," she paused. Realization that her words sounded harsh faded to existence.

"Only for you to come back and Zeref is still out there..," another pause, her voice once again bleeding with concern for her best friend, "Natsu, what happened? I was so worried.., I still am.,"

His eyes opened, meeting hers as he brought one hand to cover one of her hands placed on his cheek. Pain, sorrow, and confusion swam freely in his slate eyes. Natsu noticed the tears that brimmed in Lucy's. She was trying to be strong for both of them, she knew he was suffering if he couldn't defeat Zeref. He wondered if she'd be able to keep those tears in check.

Not a word had been released from him yet. How could he speak? He trusted Lucy, but talking of his emotions and thoughts wasn't common of him to do. Instead, he pulled her hands from his face and wrapped his arms around her.

Surprised, Lucy stared at his chest for a moment, then tilted her face up to gaze at him.

"Natsu..," her own arms wrapped around him, returning the hug, "I promise, it's going to be alright. We're going to win, we'll find another way to defeat Zeref and his army,"

"Lucy..," Natsu choked on his own words.

"hm?"

"I'm E.N.D..,"

A heavy silence filled the room. What was Lucy to say at this? Natsu felt trust in Lucy, that she wouldn't abandon him over this. But the fear and paranoia of it lingered yet in the back of his mind. The thoughts of her leaving him grew stronger with the ticking minutes.

Her arms tightened around him after several long minutes of nothing.

"I'm sorry Luce.., I..," Lucy pushed Natsu away as he began to apologize. Guilt was swelling his stomach making him feel nausea. The celestial mage turned her back to him, covering her mouth and shifting her weight between her legs. Natsu studied his friend, by the way her shoulders fell, he could tell she was taking deep breaths to remain calm.

"We'll find a way around this if that's true," it had felt like eons to Natsu before Lucy spoke again. He was scared. He was terrified. He felt like everything up to this point had been his fault.

"But..," Lucy murmured, not daring to turn to face Natsu yet.

"But what?" he swallowed a lump of saliva. The room felt cold. Hell, Natsu felt cold for once and it was a horrifying feeling.

"We have to tell everyone else," Lucy turned herself around slowly, holding her arms together and close to her.

"No, no I can't..," he backed up, waving his arms in front of him as he denied the demand to tell the guild.

Lucy glared at Natsu, almost as if she was angry and disappointed that he would keep something so important from the guild.

"Gray will kill me, Lucy!" he felt frantic. If Gray found out, the ice make wizard would slaughter his ass right there and then. They would blame the deaths of their families on him, they would blame everything Tartarous did on him, they would blame Zeref on him. The most important thought that crossed Natsu's mind however, was that everyone would be absolutely pissed that he couldn't kill Zeref and because of that, he had doomed them all.

"Natsu, you are going to tell the guild! If you're E.N.D.., well, it's hard to take in..," Lucy retorted, "It's.., really really hard to take in but, we can't just.., I can't dump my best friend like that,"

Natsu raised an eyebrow at Lucy, confused by what she meant. Lucy noticed, clearing her throat and taking a deep breath to calm the anxiety that had been building since he told her he was E.N.D.

"You, Natsu Dragneel, are my best friend. You may be E.N.D but, we don't know that for sure. And if you are..," the girl paused, taking another deep breath, "Well, I've known you for over seven years if we add that gap from the island. You're not evil, you love your friends and life.., I know you're not a horrible person for being some supposed demon who has never been activated,"

Natsu smiled weakly. Of course Lucy would still trust him. She's known him for ages now, she knew that his feelings for his friends and family was stronger than anything. The trust between him and Lucy, as well as him and the guild, was deep and he knew that.

Feeling a moment of bliss, Natsu stepped forward and embraced Lucy. He enjoyed the comfort she brought to him and how much she trusted him gave him great joy.

"But..," Natsu spoke into his friends hair as he buried his face in it, "We're not telling Gray,"

"Oh yes we are," Lucy pushed herself out of Natsu's arms, giving him a deadly glare.

"No, I refuse, I am dead set on not letting Gray know,"

"Natsu,"

"NO LUCY," Natsu didn't realize he had yelled until he saw a look of shock on Lucy's face. Had he ever yelled at her like that? He couldn't remember and he felt his stomach sink as urgent footsteps grew close to the door.


	2. Comfort

*** Story has been reposted due to uploading/formatting error! Sorry for the inconvenience! ***

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Moments after Natsu had yelled at Lucy, Happy flew in, joined by Erza and Gray. Natsu stared at the new group with nervous eyes. He had put himself in quite the pickle now.

"Natsu, what is going on in here?" Erza scowled at him, glancing at Lucy momentarily and seeing a look of hurt.

"And what don't you want to tell me?" Gray added, growing closer to the other slayer.

Natsu refused to speak, forcing a distant look into his face. Reaching out, he grabbing Lucy's hand for support.

Confused,Lucy gave her pal a questioning look.

"Natsu, what is wrong?" Erza was now beside him. For once, her hand rested on him gently.

"Come one flame brain, spit it out." Gray spoke in a hard tone.

"I..," the words began to slip, causing him to squeeze Lucy's hand. Knowing her presence was there made the situation less stressful on the pink haired boy. He side eyed at Lucy, trying to find some sort of confidence he once had.

Lucy nodded at him, squeezing his hand back. Natsu knew he had to swallow his own pride to do this. Lucy was right that he should tell them but it was difficult to. Telling others about his problems wasn't him, it wasn't something he did. Everyone knew that.

"Come on..," her voice was gentle as she delicately placed her other hand on the two of theirs that were embracing each other.

"I.., I'm ..," the words felt lodged in his throat.

"Natsu is E.N.D!" Happy spoke loudly with panic from above the group. Once everyone was looking at him, he quickly covered his mouth with his paws,tears brimming his eyes.

Natsu stared at his partner with horror. Happy exposing him like that was a surprise and it scared him. The dragon slayer could feel the panic like adrenaline burst around his body and his stomach did a flip.

"Bullshit,"

Gray's voice snapped Natsu out of his trance of fear. The ice mage waved a hand with a dismissive air.

"Out of all people, Natsu can't be E.N.D. The book is still a book anyways, E.N.D isn't activated." Gray's hard gaze burned into Natsu.

Erza nodded her head, agreeing with Gray.

"Gray is right. Last we saw, the book of E.N.D wasn't activated. The possibility of Natsu being a Zeref demon is low,"

It wasn't long before Happy argued back, causing a rather loud argument between him,Gray, and Erza.

"Tell them the truth, Natsu..," Lucy had pushed herself up on her toes to whisper in Natsu's ear.

"Fine.,"

Natsu didn't speak for a few heart beats. Taking a deep breath, he prepped himself for any negative reactions.

"Happy isn't lying.,"

The room was silent again.

Erza glared at the floor, debating with herself on what to believe.

"You're in on this too, flame brain?" Gray spoke with a hard, shaky tone. As if he didn't want to believe it at all.

Natsu shares with the others what he shared with Lucy. Heavy silence once again hung in the air.

"We have to tell the guild," Erza spoke with confidence.

"We tell the guild and we find a new way to defeat the kingdom. We may not be able to defeat Zeref but..," Erza paused, again thinking.

Lucy perked up, an idea popping into her head.

"If we can't defeat him.., maybe we can encase him in some trance like he did to the first master!" a bright smile spread across her face at the idea.

The other four members in the room stared at her in surprise.

"You came up with a great plan for once,Luce," Natsu cracked his usual shit eating grin.

A loud smack was heard from the main guild hall as Lucy hit her friend. Giggles in a dark time was bringing hope to the team.

Coming back from the room, the group received expecting looks. The other guild members were waiting to get the answer they wanted.

As Natsu and Lucy grew closer to the crowding area, looks of expectancy turned into confusion. A few members whispered to each other, glancing at the two members of the guild.

Cana slid over to Lucy, draping an arm over her friends shoulders.

"Should we be expecting a wedding invite soon?" Cana grinned at the blond celestial mage.

"Huh?" Lucy tried to back away from her friend in shock, bumping into Natsu. Cana laughed, pointing to the clasped hands.

Lucy followed her friends finger, then followed the arm up to look at Natsu. He peered back at her, not wanting to let go due to the comfort it provided. But if the guild members were going to make a big deal out of it, he'd let go. And he did.


	3. Escape

"Alright so..," Lucy stood in the center of the large group of people. Natsu had picked her up and placed her on a table, calling for everyone's attention. The young man remained relatively close to his friend, giving others quick glances but not being able to completely keep eye contact.

Lucy reached over to her friend who stood on the seat of the bench of the table, placing her hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. His black eyes followed her hand up to her face, making eye contact with her.

"Can I tell them?" she whispered just enough for him to hear. A simple nod was all he gave, sighing as he looked at the ground next to him with a scowl. Clasping her hands together , Lucy gazed at everyone.

" According to Natsu and Happy, there have been a few.., problems they ran into while trying to defeat Zeref," The celestial mage paused, eyeing the crowd around her, " Zeref has the book of E.N.D and it's connected to Natsu," the air around them tensed. It was heavy and thick and Natsu felt uncomfortable in the situation.

"Are you saying Natsu is..," Lisanna spoke up from the back of the crowd where she stood with Elfman and Mirajane.

"Yes. Natsu seem's to be E.N.D," Erza climbed onto the table next to Lucy, "And if anyone has a problem with that, you'll have to go through me," her expression was cold and stern. Erza would not budge to anyone who would harm her team mate.

As Erza stared the crowd down, whispers were shared between members. Gray stepped up next to Natsu, showing that he was on the dragon slayer's side.

Levy raised her hand from the middle of the crowd, a large grin on her face.

"That's okay! Natsu is a Fairy Tail wizard, we're not going to kick him out for something like that!"

Members of the guild nodded and voiced their agreeing opinions. Natsu snapped his gaze from the floor to the group around him.

"This gives me a better reason to fight Salamander! I can see how strong he really is if he's E.N.D!" Gajeel's voice echoed in everyone's mind. Thanks to Warren's magic, everyone was able to stay in contact through these moments.

Natsu grinned cheerfully, he was a lucky guy to have a family to be as accepting as this. Lucy placed her hand on his shoulder again, her smile warm and reassuring.

"You need to trust me more, Natsu..,"

The pink haired man returned the smile, muttering a 'thank you' to his friend. Grabbing Lucy's wrist, Natsu pulled her down into him. The weight of her caused him to jump down from the bench but he didn't mind, all he wanted in this time was to hold her close and appreciate that she was in his life.

"How are we going to defeat Zeref now?" someone called once the chatter had died down.

"Lucy had an idea to put Zeref in the dead like state that first master is in," Erza replied for the blond mage.

Natsu climbed back up onto the bench, pulling Lucy up with him. She gave him a quick squeeze hug before turning back to the group of mages.

"All we would need is to have someone with the same curse to well.., touch him.., or..," as Lucy thought more of the idea, she began to see several flaws.

"I'm the only one with the curse as far as we know..," Mavis strode through the crowd to the team on the table, "And my body is encased in a crystal with no way of bringing me 'back to life'"

The hope that was brought back quickly disappeared again. It was true, they didn't have a way to bring Mavis' physical body back.

"What about the crystal?" Natsu asked, peering over Lucy's shoulder to the small master.

"Hades put me in there to prolong the life of my physical body and study it," Mavis answered the question.

"But what if we put a.., well.., a living or awake person in there..," Lucy suggested, knowing it would probably fall short.

" I have no idea what it would due but it most likely wouldn't work..," Makarov joined the conversation, "A crystal like that would take too much power to create and keep Zeref sealed,"

Lucy frowned, trying to think of another way to defeat Zeref but not completely kill him.

"We could ask him to change his mind..," she mumbled. Natsu picked up what she said and chuckled quietly.

"That won't work, obviously, Luce,"

"It was worth a shot thinking of it,"

"What do we do then?" a voice called from the crowd of guild members. Voices sprung up with ideas and objections. Each plan that came up had a major flaw.

"I have to go back," Natsu murmured, "I have to try and kill him..,"

staring at the mass of arguing people, Natsu sunk into the depths of the crowd, eventually vanishing out of the guild without notice. Lucy struggled in attempt to make the room quiet.

"SILENCE" Makarov's voice boomed the guild hall, echoing around. Mages froze in respective fear of the master.

"We can not possibly form a plan if we're arguing," Makarov jumped up onto the table with the three who stood on it. Lucy shuffled down from the table, no longer wanting the spotlight of the conversation. Gray followed suit of Lucy, deciding it was best to listen instead of lead.

"If Natsu is E.N.D, that means he is the only one who can successfully end Zeref. But that would mean an end to him as well," the current master tugged at his mustache, "There may not be any other way to go about this..,"

"There has to be!" Lucy was quick to defend Natsu. Even if he was the only one, there were consequences that she would not be able to live with. Happy flew close to Makarov, feeling hostile at the mention that the only choice was for Natsu to end his own life by defeating Zeref.

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"We're fairy tail, Natsu is fairy tail, we can come up with a way to defeat Zeref and his army!" Tears brimmed the blue cats eyes. Makarov gave the exceed a warning glare. Momentary, Happy stayed where he was before flying away to find Natsu for comfort.

Being unsuccessful in the attempt, Happy went to Lucy. He urgently whispered to her, telling her he couldn't find their mutual pal.

"Natsu is missing!" Lucy spoke loudly, glancing about her area with panic, "Natsu where are you!" she called, shoving people to the side. She knew him well, and if any of these plans didn't work, he'd do something on his own again. A cold, dark feeling arose in Lucy. A feeling of misfortune and horror. She knew where he had gone.


	4. Private Confession

Natsu had a 20 minute gap between him and the guild. If anyone were to go after him, they'd be too late even if Erza used all her magic on a vehicle.

When he had slipped away from the guild, Natsu had made his way to a stable and rented a riding animal. When the owner told Natsu that the creature was quick, they weren't lying. The dragon slayer promised to bring the animal back, but deep down he knew it wouldn't be him bringing the creature back to it's owner. Eventually Lucy would come after him. If not Lucy, then Erza or Gray.

"I'm sorry Luce..," he muttered as the animal and him made their way back to the area Zeref was located. Once again, Natsu had left Lucy without a word of warning directly to her. But this time he wouldn't be coming back, he knew that and he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the survival of his friends.

Lucy was going to be devastated, he knew that. After what she told him what happened to her when he left the first time, he knew it would be hard for her to forgive him.

Scenery passed by while the only sound was the beast's breath and movement. It was almost peaceful if it weren't for the guilt overwhelming Natsu.

How would Happy react? He would have Lucy but together, who knew how they would be. Emotion twisted his stomach, causing him to feel rather ill.

Soon. Soon he would be beat Zeref. He could feel it and shoving any regrets to the back of his mind was required. Natsu forced himself to only think of defeating Zeref for the future of his guild mates.

Natsu banned himself from thinking of the upsetting emotions. He had to think of the future. A future without him. A future he wouldn't be able to spend with Happy or Lucy.

"I'm sorry Lucy..," he paused, feeling Zeref's power grow closer.

" I'm sorry Happy..," the animal stopped, forcing Natsu go climb off and run.

"You were a great friend, Happy ," Zeref was in view.

"I love you,Lucy..,"


End file.
